Welcome to Britain Project

Welcome to Britain and accompanying projects ‘Queue’ and ‘A Plea to Somewhere Else’ were made between 2001 and 2004 and explored the concept of immigration through audio, drawing and installation. The audio work was made with the help of the Croydon Refugee Centre. At the time I was living and working in Croydon , home of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate where, day and night, a slow moving queue of men, women and children waited to apply for permission to remain in the UK. A spell of bad weather one Winter forced the Home Office to hire coaches to accommodate people close to hypothermia. Every day on my way to my studio I passed the queue which snaked round crash barriers outside the Home Office while traffic roared by and shoppers themselves queued at tills in the Sainsbury’s across the road.